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Nice, even if a library of an university have to be some sort of classification (numbers of books, order by author, order by argument etc.)

Sure! The six(!) library rooms are separated by the genre (fiction, occult, biology, physics etc). Currently the system is that you can hover over the books with the mouse cursor, and it will automaticly give you the first letter of the author. So that way it's relatively easy to spot the book you want. But you need to know what you are seacrhing for the book to appear.

Any new eye-candy screens? ^^

There are some new backgrounds, but most of them are missing final tweaks or characters, so I won't show them yet.

But okay, here's one, maybe not the most visual or exciting background, but it shows one section of the Miskatonic University's library:



Good luck finding your book!

[Anyways, now it's time for some announcements:]

Hello again, just realized it's been over a month since last udpate...

Anyways, now it's time for some announcements:

First of all, the game has a sound designer! Antti is a very talented sound designer, who's been working mostly on television and movies. We have also worked together earlier, and he's a great guy, so I'm very happy that he's onboard. Now I can focus more on the other aspects of the game, and don't have to worry about the audio that much. 

Secondly, the game has a composer! Drum roll...

Troy Sterling Nies has agreed to compose the music for The Witch House!

I had the pleasure of meeting Troy at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival last year, and I'm thrilled that he was interested in The Witch House. Troy has worked on several H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's projects, including the feature films The Whisperer in Darkness and The Call of Cthulhu. You can listen Troy's music on his Bandcamp-page: https://troysterlingnies.bandcamp.com/

I couldn't be happier about our little team! So no new screenshots this time, eventhough the game has progressed nicely lately. And also thanks for the people who have contacted me and offered their help in the audio department!

Awwww...But stereotyped purplely-written lowlife thugs is an awesome Lovecraft trope!!!

Agreed! But don't worry, there will be at least one tough street kid hanging around in Orne's Gangway, and hopefully also a band of muggers. 

By the way, nice work on Chronicle of Innsmouth, I was naturally very interested to see how it turned out!

Will this game be taking place during the prohibition? It might be an interesting play through if Walter were to blow off his classes and spend all his time in speakeasies and pool halls, though I imagine if he gets arrested or expelled that would probably bring the game to an early end.

Yes, it's set in unspecified year in late 1920s or very early 1930s. There is a puzzle dealing with getting alcohol through shady methods. Maybe alcohol also restores sanity/warmth for a while, but I've not yet that far in the game. Probably no pool halls though...

Hey, it's Groucho Marx!

If you mean the librarian lady, I didn't see it first, but now that you said it... We'll fix it!

This can turn me on or off depending on the feel of the place.

In this case I look forward to spending time there so job well done!

Great to hear that! It was somehow quite difficult to design that room, because there needs to be a lot of functionality. I hope I have some time to add few extra decorations there.

I love everything about this project.

Thanks! I'm a fan of your work too!

What about a little side research off the main route?

Well, actually I forgot to tell that Walter is working on a theory, which combines magic with science. So you can also work on that (your occult and math skills add to your theory), and if you manage to write a proper thesis, you can publish it in the University newspaper, and get some pocket money!

Another screenshot, this time we are inside the Miskatonic University. Still a bit under construction though!



This is the reading room where you can study for your exams, or study maths and occult (the really powerful occult books are stored in the basement and you need a permission to examine them). You can also study in your own room, but there might be strange disturbances which can break your concentration... At the right edge is the card file, where you can check the location of the books in the library. After you know the book's location, you can go and find it, and borrow it from the librarian. And behind the door is professor Armitage's office. So this is a place you will be spending quite a lot of time.

And when it's a cold day, there's also a nice fire in the fireplace

Is this an old vinyl record in the top right?

You're not the first person saying that... But no, it's not, you will see it in the game when you scroll up to the next stage. I can say that it's more cosmic than a vinyl record.

Sorry it's been a while since the last update! Good news is that I've been busy working with the game and made some progress.

I wanted to show you something bit different this time. This background is still a bit work-in-progress, but I wanted to share it with you before the Christmas holidays. It's one of the dream scenes, a very alien place with a strange geometry and physics.



Actually it's a mini-game with several stages and parallax scrolling, and this is the first part of it. It's been a lot of work figuring this out, and because there is a lot of animation going on, it will probably be the most resource-heavy scene in the whole game (I hope that it runs smoothly with older computers...). Anyway, I hope you like it, and happy holidays! 

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This looks Excellent. Well done

Only issue will be if it is challenging for those of us who belong to the cult and thus have read the story

Thanks! I hope so, it might give you a slight upper hand, but thats only fair. The RPG-elements and other events require also bit of strategizing.

The graphics look great can't wait

Man, the game looks incredible! The character design, animation, the backgrounds, it all just oozes style and atmosphere. And those flickering reflections in the last image!

Very good work. Keep up the good work, man

Thanks everyone!
Been working a lot with the game recently, but progress is slow with these things. Still I think I've made more progress this autumn, than in the whole last year...

Happy Halloween from Keziah Mason! Watch out or she'll get you!

Yes, I think that I'm going with the 16:9 aspect. It's more work, but looks more professional in my opinion too. I think it's also easier to desing rooms to 16:9, I've had problems with the room heights, all the action happens in the middle part of the screen, and the top and bottom is usually just dead space.

Here you go, input.

Thanks for the input! Yes, every pixel counts. Somehow I feel that playing the game on full screen feels more like playing "real" game. Those black borders might raise questions to casual gamer. I made some test with 320 x 180 px, the backgrounds didn't suffer that much, 10 pixels off from top and bottom. And those parts usually haven't got anything important going on. I enjoy that I can have full screen mode and there isn't any stretching going on. I still have to think about it, like you said, quite a lot pixels would be lost, and more work with the background tweaking.

Maybe the community could advice me a bit... I'm thinking about changing the resolution of the game. It's currently 320 x 200, so if people will play it fullscreen with 16:9 monitors, there will be black borders, or an ugly stretch effect. I kind of just noticed that when I upgraded AGS to 3.4.0.16 version, I could use 320 x 180 resolution which would fill the screen nicely and pixel perfect.

Of course making that kind of change seems a bit daunting. But I feel it's easier to design rooms and graphics for 16:9 aspect ratio. The inventory is hidden normally so I have the full screen height to use anyway. Gui's have to be re-designed, but that's not that big of a problem, because I haven't really worked on those. Bigger problem is if I crop my backgrounds, I'll lose my hotspots, walkbehinds etc. But is there something else I should consider, something that might cause bigger problems? Currently I feel that the extra work would be worth it.

Looks great, as have all your screenshots so far! I'm not familiar with Lovecraft but the game has intrigued me. The light RPG systems sound really novel.

Thanks! I hope that the game will be totally enjoyable to people who don't know anything about Lovecraft. This story is quite different than the usual "Cthulhu Mythos" stories. It's more concentrated on the main character, and you don't have to know anything about the Old Ones etc. Still Lovecraft fans will get an extra kick out of it, I hope. 

The Lite RPG-system/open world mechanism was something I wanted to try and I feel it fits the story well. The problem is that it takes a lot of time to make it all work, and possibility of bugs goes way up. Also, I want that the game has a good replay value (Walter might die half-way through the game!), so the puzzles should have some variation each time. Good thing is that I have learned a lot scripting doing this. The code is a bit messy, but it's slowly getting better. Just learned about floating point numbers yesterday!

Lovecraft inspires so many adventure games!

I dig your style. The animations look neat too.

awesome.

though that portal would make books, table, chair, bed and lamp throw some shadows...

Thank you!

Thanks for the comments! Here's a new one:



Something strange is happening in the Witch House. It must be a dream, right?

The way "WITCH HOUSE" is written makes me think of old cartoons somehow.

Yes, I was thinking that the "house" is almost like "mouse", so it might remind of old Mickey Mouse posters . But really I was trying to get old, pulpy horror movie poster feeling to it.

It's been a while since I posted last time, so here's an update! As you might have guessed, that is the main menu, the starting screen. I'll tweak it more later on, but it will do for now. Maybe the buttons need bit more polish/sparkle... Suggestions  and other comments are very welcome! I played around with the Smooth Scroll module, and was able to do a nice parallax tilt to the Witch House. You'll see it a bit later, when I have time to do my first video.

As the Halloween approaches, I'll be posting more stuff, and this time it's the scary, evil stuff. You might get a glimpse of Brown Jenkin, or even Keziah!

Looks great, the background in the video is very atmospheric too. Good luck with the project!

Hopefully Walter will have a photographic memory or at least have that option. Maybe some sort of mechanic where Walter can do all the remembering for you and then he'll know what the correct answers are on the test?

Spoiler

Having read the original story am I correct in assuming that it is possible to get killed? Will there be a way to defeat the witch without getting killed by her familiar at the end?

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When you study for a test, Walter will read aloud the answers. Then when you take a test, it's a multiple choice query, and if you have studied enough, the right answer (which Walter had read aloud before) will be available. But this system is not ready yet, so there might be some changes too. Main thing is that it requires some interaction, and is a small puzzle in itself.

Spoiler

Walter can die during the game. Like in survival games, you must eat and you can get sick or injured. So these deaths are unscripted events. There will be several endings, and unlike in the short story, you can survive and defeat Brown Jenkin. But ofcourse you could suffer the same fate as in the story too...

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